Buyer’s Guide to Vehicle Wraps for All Vehicle Types

Vehicle wraps are a great way to promote your business right on a moving billboard for thousands to see a day. Almost anything that is moving can be wrapped, no matter what size vehicle or what sized wrap. Common wraps are for company vehicles, food trucks, boats, RVs and trucks. Even vehicles without engines can be wrapped such as trailers and campers. Rather than pay for a full new paint job and everything that comes along with it, we recommend looking into high quality custom vehicle wraps to solve your aesthetic and brand promotion needs.

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Full Vehicle Wraps

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If you want to create the largest presence and impact, full vehicle wraps are the way to go. Everything is wrapped except for the legally restricted areas such as the windshield and mirrors. If you’re wrapping your vehicle for the car wrap advertising industry, it’s very common to have a full vehicle wrap so the brand being advertised can get the largest ad space possible. Even if you’re promoting your own company, it makes sense to use the entire space of empty car panels to eek out every last inch of ad space. You can custom order any imagery you want for the wrap, whether it be your brand’s logo, a huge splash advertisement, or your CEO’s face – whatever gets the message across.

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Partial Vehicle Wraps

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If you’d like the benefits of a full vehicle wrap, but don’t want to pay the full price, partial vehicle wraps are a good bet. The obvious difference is that partial wraps, or half wraps, will not cover the entire vehicle but only certain sides, or even just single vehicle graphics placed strategically around the vehicle. Partial wraps still come in the high quality material and high resolution as the full wraps. Partial vehicle wraps grab the same attention as full wraps at a lower price and quicker turnaround in the conception to installation process. Partial wraps can be applied to any vehicle – boats, RVs, cars, trucks, etc.

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Custom Truck Wraps

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Trucks need custom vinyl lettering and custom graphics more often than standard cars do because they represent the company and fleet they are driving for. With large panels and thousands of hours on the road each year, trucks should utilize the blank canvas they have to promote their company brand or serve as billboards for a specific advertisement. Some trucks have gone as far as just being advertising billboards that drive around all day for maximum exposure. When applying custom vinyl graphics to trucks, it’s important to keep an eye out for small details on the trailer or rig that can get in the way of the graphics. We need to watch out for small doors, rivets, and trim that can get in the way of a large wrap job. Pickup trucks, small commercial trucks, and 18-wheelers and their trailers are no problem for custom wrapping.

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Food Truck Vehicle Wraps

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The food truck craze is sweeping the nation, and more and more trucks are popping up every month. With increased competition food trucks need to stand out when they get their vehicle wrapped so it’s important to choose a powerful, attention grabbing food truck wrap so customers can easily spot them at the next food truck competition. Food truck owners usually opt for full vehicle wraps for their food trucks, but if you want to save money you can get away with having the two side panels and back panel wrapped for a semi-partial wrap.

Food trucks need to be extra careful to pay attention to design because much of their business is determined by the first impressions of their potential customers that may decide in only a few seconds at a food truck festival.

When designing your food truck wraps and graphics, first make sure it is consistent with your marketing materials and website. Second, make sure that your contact info and social media addresses are clearly visible. If drivers on the freeway like the look of your truck and want to find you, they’ll need to quickly see how they can follow you on Twitter and Facebook, so make those clearly visible. Lastly make sure the design of the wrap will not be misconstrued when the food truck is in business. Don’t put key graphics on panels that will be opened up and not visible to customers in line or passing by. Typically these food trucks have a lot of small doors that open, rivets, and trim/molding that we have to pay special attention to detail on.

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Motorcycle Wraps and Decals

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Motorcycle owners love to keep their baby in tip-top shape, and after years of hard riding, it’s inevitable that the decals and graphics will start to fade and peel. Owners shouldn’t fret about buying a whole new paint job, as partial and full wraps for motorcycles will restore the look of the bike to it’s original condition. Wraps can be made as small and as intricate as needed for motorcycles, and high quality resolution printing will make the motorcycle look beautiful once again.

Motorcycle wraps are more challenging due to the number of what we call compound curves. They take more time and attention to detail in order to make them look right. Motorcycles with colored plastics, such as dirt bikes, cannot be wrapped. Generally speaking, wraps need to have a glossy, smooth finish in order to be applied.

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RV Wraps and Decals

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Does your RV need a new paint job? How about spending half the price for an RV wrap that looks just as good? Most RV owners are very proud of their RV and the way it looks, but after too many years the color and paint begins to fade. An updated look with an RV wrap will make your baby look good as new. Most RVs have a solid coat of paint as the base, with some lines or interesting graphics running down the side. If only these accent decals are peeling or curling, then it’s not necessary to get a whole paint job for the RV and a partial or full wrap will do the job. Vinyl decals and wraps can be custom cut to match the exact decals of the original design. The RV will look good as new and no one will be the wiser.

Beyond full sized RVs, trailers and campers can be wrapped as well to match their original design. Like RVs, the decals will often peel before any of the original paint shows any aging, so a simple custom cut decal job will restore the trailer or camper back to its original shape.

The process involves the printer checking out the RV to take pictures, helping you plan the new design, and install the final product.

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Car Advertising Wraps and Graphics

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Although it’s somewhat of a new idea, companies are catching on to the vehicle-advertising trend. It might look silly to your everyday person, but since it stands out so much to have a car wrapped in a custom advertisement, it could be worth the money. Think of the famous Red Bull Mini Coopers, these things are fully wrapped in a custom Red Bull vehicle wrap design, and you can spot it coming down the road from a mile away. If you’re doing vehicle advertising as a serious brand promotion strategy either for you clients or your own company, your goal is to be as recognizable as the Red Bull cars.

Vehicle wrap advertising involves eye-catching graphics with sponsor logos prominently featured. Many vehicle advertising agencies will order multiple wraps at the same time for entire fleets of vehicles, so it’s important to test multiple design to see which one garners the most eyeballs, telephone calls, and business.

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Fleet Wraps

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Many corporate fleet cars and trucks will want their vehicles to be easily recognized by employees, customers, and everyday citizens so it’s important to convey a positive brand image for your company. If you’re wrapping a full fleet of cars with some custom wraps, it’s a good idea to wrap them all at once with full fleet wraps to keep consistent branding and matching quality among all vehicles. Fleet wraps are similar to other wraps, but the challenge with these is making sure every vehicle gets wrapped exactly the same. Taking measurements and applying the graphics in the same place each time is crucial. These wraps are good for long term use and the vinyl is removable if you change your mind or want to be able to add and remove the wrap for certain functions.

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Boat Wraps

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Boats can take a beating out on the water for many years, especially in salt water. It’s inevitable that the beautiful decals and paint on your boat will start to fade, and custom boat wraps and decals are a great way to restore the boat to its original grandeur. Boat wraps use the same material on that used for any other vehicle. For the boats, the printer will apply a special seam tape along the water line to ensure that the water does not compromise the vinyl. The seam tape is waterproof and will not be affected and it will last 2-3 years.

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Reflective Vinyl and Wraps

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Beyond the standard die cut vinyl, if you want your vehicle wrap to stand out in the dark of the night then reflective vinyl decals and full on reflective vinyl wraps are a smart way to stretch the value of your vehicle wrap. Reflective vinyl reflects car headlights long into the night and helps your message be seen by bored motorists. The printing and installation process works just the same as standard vinyl installation so don’t let that deter your decision.

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Material and Installation Time Wraps and Decals

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The material used in all wrap and decal jobs is high quality vinyl. All of the jobs are printed on the same high quality 3M wrap vinyl and laminated with 3M lamination. The die cut vinyl used in some projects is also made from the same high quality 3M material.

Installation time depends on the size and complexity of the wrap and the number of vehicles wrapped at the same time. Your printer can help take measurements, come up with the design, and do the printing and installation, which can be a few days to a few weeks process. The actual installation time is generally a few hours, but can be multiple days for larger projects.